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Greed and Listing: The Twin Engines that Crashed the Crypto Industry
Crypto lit up like a Christmas tree a year ago in Dec 2017, everybody got their gifts and more, and joy was in the air. Now the lights are out, snow is thick, and all the wonderful gifts have been returned, except nobody got their money back.
Bitcoin has been cited as the worst investment instrument in 2018, having lost more than 72% of its value in the year. And many tokens that were hot items a year ago, simply ceased to exist. Santa Claus definitely did not come to town, and from the looks of it, won’t be for a while. So we find ourselves asking, “what happened?”
Pundits, analysts, and experts have written many words trying to answer this question, citing lack of adoption, an inevitable bubble, regulations, etc., yet there is a much simpler answer composed of two items: greed and listing.
First, greed of crypto funds, exchanges, projects, and token buyers themselves have hurled the industry headlong into a chasm. The irony is that greed is a good thing, as Mr. Gecko famously pointed out in the movie Wall Street. Greed is the foundation of competition, and is what drives corporations to compete not just for a slice of market share, but for the entire pie.
However greed without regulations always lead to bad things happening, as history shows over and over again. This is why there are rules and regulations, to protect the public and reduce foul play. Yet the crypto industry lies within a vacuum, and that space has been filled with parties all eager to take profit with whatever means necessary.
But crypto has been outside regulatory oversight for many years, why have we seen 2017 and 2018 explode and implode? The second part of the answer lies in unchecked token listing on exchanges. Crypto projects are unique in that their tokens can list on exchanges and trade immediately as liquid assets, without having gone through any review or check.
With no users, revenue statements, product, or even real team members, projects and token buyers are able to induce massive transfers of wealth through conducting ICO’s and then list immediately. It would be unprecedented in any other industry for a company to be traded solely off the strength of its marketing and white paper, yet it has been the norm of the crypto industry.
The lack of accountability or even legality in this process created a fundamentally misaligned incentive structure for all parties involved, funds, projects, exchanges, and retail token buyers. Most crypto funds do not care about a project beyond its speculative value and projects are ill-incentivized to actually develop when they’ve already been paid millions for writing a wishlist.
Exacerbating the issue is that exchanges generate revenue from listing and trading of tokens, meaning they are inherently incentivized to look the other way if a project seems fraudulent. Finally, retail token buyers who do not have any technical background, product building, and business experiences are directly exposed to projects without any guidance of measurement or review.
This has created a dysfunctional cycle that has decimated the industry:
Projects put most of the time and resources into developing and marketing a whitepaper, not an actual product. Marketing team does a good job, and ICO is expected to smoothly. Tokens are sold privately with a heavy discount for “crypto funds.”
ICO is conducted and retail buyers rush in due to the project’s backing by “well-known” crypto funds.
Due to pressure from crypto funds to liquidate, projects rush to list on exchanges.
Project pays exorbitant listing fees, as exchanges are the sole gateway to liquidity
Once listed, everyone dumps to realize gains. Price tanks, whoever is unlucky enough to buy last, is now left holding the bag.
New projects start and the cycle begins again.
Dysfunctional Cycle of Crypto (DCC)
So now that there are no one left to fleece, how do we break the cycle? There are 3 major changes that must happen in order to right the damage done to the industry, and they are not easy:
Stop funding ideas and focus on execution;
Regulate exchanges;
Dis-intermediate, not de-centralize.
First, we as an industry, need to stop funding ideas and instead fund execution. It has been reported that over half of ICO’s that started in 2017 failed within the first four months. By now the failure should be well over 90%. And that is normal, as failure is the norm for any new company, blockchain or not. It is easy to write words, but much harder to make anything work.
There is a saying that “an idea is worth 1%, execution is the other 99%.” ICO’s are essentially being funded with millions, and sometimes tens, hundreds of millions based just on their ideas. As a serial entrepreneur, I am now on my fourth startup with Asia Innovations. My first startup struggled and was sold. My second one failed. My third one was sold to Zynga, and my fourth and current one has grown from 0 to close

On November 29, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) warned that a firm dubbed Platin Genesis DCC is operating illegally. In the warning, BaFin states the firm was promoting a ‘platinum crypto coin fund’ on social media claiming that BaFin had approved and released it. The watchdog goes on to clarify that the statement is not true and that the firm does not have permission to offer banking services or financial services. According to data from CoinMarketCap, Platin Genesis’ token dubbed Platincoin is trading at $4.48, down 1.11% today. (KE)

The Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange, based out of South Korea, recently posted the following announcement on their Twitter feed about the most recent additions to its decentralized exchange: “NEXO and DCC are available at Bithumb DEX now! Visit Bithumb DEX website and trade newly listed cryptocurrencies #Bithumb #NEXO #DCC https://www.bithumb.io/.” The Bithumb DEX is a separate arm of the Bithumb exchange where users can trade available cryptocurrencies without the need to verify their identity and regardless of their geographic location. (JF)

The noise that surrounds economic relations between the United States and China is amping up exponentially. You can thank the latest trade wars for that, as fresh tensions boil over between the two nations who are currently trading new tariffs on imports, with no shortage of ill will underpinning the moves.But the Chinese government’s ire is not just outward-facing. As a country where ICOs are currently not allowed, exchanges have had their bank accounts frozen, and internet and mobile access to cryptocurrency trading information has been banned, China is taking an equally hard line on a wide range of crypto-centric activities within its own borders. All this despite a stark dichotomy, wherein over 50 percent of the worldwide mining population resided within its borders in 2017, and cryptocurrency adoption is outpacing most other countries. While trade war bullets may be flying thick and fast between these two mega-economies, the key to a better Chinese blockchain sector just may be unlocked by deploying cooperative forces in the United States, as seen by the recent launch of a New York City office for the China Blockchain Application Center (CBAC). The CBAC NY was founded with the hope of paving the way for rapid blockchain adoption in China, in part by picking up regulatory best practices from the United States, all while fostering blockchain and crypto collaboration between the two nations.An early-stage, non-governmental organization (NGO) established in 2015, the CBAC collaborates with regulatory bodies to develop comprehensive regulations, encourage the application of blockchain technology in traditional industries, and connect Chinese practitioners with peers around the world. By helping to develop increased regulations, blockchain industry applications and international connections, members of the CBAC are hoping to elevate blockchain’s role in China’s $12 trillion economy. Crypto Challenges in ChinaOne of the speakers at a well-attended August launch party in NYC’s financial district was Stewie Zhu, founder and CEO of the distributed banking public blockchain Distributed Credit Chain (DCC), and a standing committee member of the CBAC. While ICO scams and other bad actors have significantly hindered progress in his home country, Zhu sees plenty of near-term potential for crypto and blockchain technology there. “While China has prohibited the sale of new cryptocurrencies through ICOs since early last September, there is still a big appetite for the application of blockchain technology,” Zhu told Bitcoin Magazine. “In fact, a [recent] Chinese Supreme Court ruling has stated that blockchain technology can be used to authenticate evidence in legal contexts. The trading of cryptocurrencies is possible, but the government is trying to create financial stability to minimize any illegal activity. The Chinese government is eager to make considerable strides on the technology front, and while stringent, they are trying to ensure that cryptocurrency trading is done responsibly.“There are challenges behind blockchain technology as it relates to banking,” Zhu continued, “because it requires a reconstruction of long-standing relationships in the current market, as well as time for citizens to understand the mechanisms behind using blockchain. Companies may need to make significant changes to their daily operations to incorporate blockchain, not to mention the time and resources needed for pre-application research.”Zhu pointed out that it also takes time for private citizens to fully understand and trust cryptocurrency. Between price swings and security vulnerabilities, they may be leery of entering the market, he believes.“Given the volatility in the crypto market and the negative news about problematic ICOs, individual customers can be cautious of tokens,” he said. “Security is also an issue. Blockchain technology is not perfect. We still need more R&D to develop ways to prevent potential threats such as the 51% attack, where an organization controlling the majority of network mining power can prevent transactions by others and allow its own coin to be spent twice (double spending). So long as these threats exist, many companies may not see blockchain as a practical tool.” Part of a Bigger PictureA successful push by the Chinese government to instill crypto confidence goes beyond better banking and protecting consumers, however. “The Chinese government is trying to shift the economy from manufacturing-based to a more value-added, services-based, to move from being the factory of the world to being the service provider of the world, which is a natural economic evolution that you would expect from any country as they try to level-up,” Zennon Kapron observed in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. Kapron is the founder of Kapronasia, a Singapore-based firm focused on providing insights into Asia's financial industry. “China has always tried to stay ahead and it’s used technology as a way of leveraging that with t

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